Recent Studies Suggest the Obese May Be Treated Less Favorably

Several recent studies suggest that being significantly overweight may be detrimental to more than just your health. When considering liposuction Nashville residents may want to consider the impact of these studies and their broader implications.

In the first study, ten participants of average build were dressed in prosthetic suits that made them appear obese. Once in the “fat suits”, each person was sent into a variety of stores and simulated a standard shopping experience. The study recorded parameters such as the time it took for recognition by store employees, the amount of time store employees spent assisting the customers, and the amount of eye contact. The conclusion was that the overall treatment of non-obese customers was better than the treatment of the obese. For the obese customers, average recognition time was more than twice as long, average assistance time was less than half along, and eye contract was minimal.

In another study, employees in three different companies were analyzed over the course of one year. The two evenly matched groups of employees, one group obese and one non-obese, were taken from the Sales and Customer Service Departments. Each employee’s job performance, current salary, and position within their company were compared. The results showed that although both ranked evenly in job performance, the non-obese employees received more praise, better salaries, and were promoted more often than the obese ones. During layoffs, obese employees were fifty percent more likely to be dismissed.

In a third study, mental health professionals were found to attribute negative psychological traits towards obese patients more readily than average patients. Assigning them more severe psychological assignments, these professionals were thirty percent more likely to proscribed treatments to overweight patients. Lastly, over seventy percent of the patients interviewed post-session stated that they felt their professional treated them more clinically than personably. There is a common denominator in all these studies, an automatic negative treatment towards someone considered overweight.

It’s surprising to confirm something we often suspect – that thin people may be treated better than overweight people. Interestingly this discrimination may not even be conscious. In the case of the first study, all instances of prejudice occurred in a fairly public setting, while in the case of the third study, the bias was shown by a professional who is normally unbiased. In both situations, other forms of discrimination (such as race or gender) are far less likely to be exhibited.